Iowa · Nonprofit
HIGHER THINGS INC
HIGHER THINGS INC (Iowa) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $177,420 to it, the largest being NEW REFORMATION PUBLICATIONS ($115,000). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.6M
- Funders on record
- 7
- Grants received
- $177k
- Net assets
- $781k
What Higher Things Inc does
Mission
The mission of higher things is to make the gifts of christ jesus known to youth and young adults
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
We held three conferences for youth serving 1,774 youth, pastors, and adult leaders. The conferences promote a christian identity for the youth and provide a place where they can more deeply understand their christian faith. Conferences include daily worship, catechesis classes, breakout sessions and entertainment. Smaller retreats are held throughout the year with similar objectives but on a much smaller, regional scale.
$854,775 spent$1,062,696 earned by the program86% of program spendingOur resources area produces video shorts, devotional booklets, podcasts, curriculum including vacation bible school packages, bible studies, and confirmation.
$133,539 spent$91,349 earned by the program14% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $988,314.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2021, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2021, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2024 to 2025, from $880k to $1.2M (+37%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Government-grant reliance: 2021 16%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
28% of HIGHER THINGS INC’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (90% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 5 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2023 and FY2024 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 3 funders, grant income rose $5k → $41k.
5 of 7 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 13% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of HIGHER THINGS INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
HIGHER THINGS INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 65% of grant income and the top three 91%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
77% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund HIGHER THINGS INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 100% · 2019 100% · 2020 97% · 2021 75% · 2022 96% · 2023 49% — diversifying over time.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Where its funders are
HIGHER THINGS INC draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside Iowa, across 2 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $22k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
HIGHER THINGS INC holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 1,325 religion nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,325 religion nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like HIGHER THINGS INC
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Iowa
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
71% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
77%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for HIGHER THINGS INC: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds HIGHER THINGS INC?
- HIGHER THINGS INC (Iowa) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $177,420 to it, the largest being NEW REFORMATION PUBLICATIONS ($115,000). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does HIGHER THINGS INC have?
- IRS filings report 7 organizations giving $177,420 in grants to HIGHER THINGS INC, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of HIGHER THINGS INC?
- NEW REFORMATION PUBLICATIONS is the largest funder on record, with $115,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like HIGHER THINGS INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Iowa. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
Play a game about who funds Higher Things →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2021–2025), and the filings of 7 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing